Comparative Media Project

Essay by bdesai3University, Master's December 2004

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With terror threats looming over us, and an economy still unstable, we look to mass media for up to the minute news and an in-depth look into situation of grave concerns. Most of the time we think of mass media as a form of entertainment, but we must know that the main role of mass media is to act as the fourth estate. Most people decide which medium to use based on convenience and/or habits, however the rest of us choose the medium based on the timeliness, visual effects or the in-depth analysis of the stories. We use television for its visual effectiveness, radio for its timeliness, magazines for its in-depth analysis, and the newspaper for timeliness and the in-depth analysis.

The news mediums that I chose to compare are the Philadelphia Inquire, a local newspaper, and Channel 6 Action news on television. The story took place on Friday, August 20, 2004.

It was about two firefighters who were killed in a house fire in Port Richmond. Cap. John Taylor and firefighter Ray Rubio died trying to save Daniel Brough, who was making illegal drugs in the house. I used the August 23rd edition of the Inquire and 11:00 pm broadcast on channel 6 on August 22nd and 6:00 pm broadcast on August 23rd.

The newspaper posted the article written by Tina Moore, an Inquire staff writer, on the front page of the Local News section (section B). The headline read, "Suspect arraigned in deaths of firemen." The article is located on the right side of the front page of the section and is continued on page 8 of the section, also on the top right hand side. Page 8 headline read, "Man arraigned in deaths of 2 city firefighters." The article on the front page had the dimension of...